These things being done, Nelson said to Blackwood, “Now I can do no more.  We must trust to the great Disposer of all events, and to the justice of our cause.  I thank God for this great opportunity of doing my duty.”  When his last signal had been acknowledged by a few ships in the van, the admiral directed Pasco to make that for close action, and to keep it up.  This was accordingly hoisted on board the flagship, where it was flying still as she disappeared into the smoke of the battle, and so remained till shot away.  The “Victory” was about two miles from the “Royal Sovereign” when the latter, at ten minutes past twelve, broke through the allied order, and she had still a mile and a half to go before she herself could reach it.  At twenty minutes past twelve Villeneuve’s flagship, the “Bucentaure,” of eighty guns, fired a shot at her, to try the range.  It fell short.  A few minutes later a second was fired, which dropped alongside.  The distance then was a mile and a quarter.  Two or three followed in rapid succession and passed over the “Victory.”  Nelson then turned to Blackwood, and directed him and Captain Prowse of the “Sirius” to return to their ships, but in so doing to pass along the column and tell the captains he depended upon their exertions to get into action as quickly as possible.  He then bade them again to go away.  Blackwood, who was standing by him at the forward end of the poop, took his hand, and said, “I trust, my Lord, that on my return to the Victory, which will be as soon as possible, I shall find your Lordship well and in possession of twenty prizes.”  Nelson replied, “God bless you, Blackwood, I shall never speak to you again.”

The “Victory” was all the time advancing, the feeble breeze urging her progress, which was helped also by her lurching through the heavy following swell that prevailed.  Before Blackwood could leave her, a shot passed through the main-topgallantsail, and the rent proclaimed to the eager eyes of the foes that the ship was fairly under their guns.  Thereupon everything about the “Bucentaure,” some seven or eight ships, at least, opened upon this single enemy, as the allied rear and centre had upon the “Royal Sovereign;” for it was imperative to stop her way, if possible, or at least to deaden it, and so to delay as long as might be the moment when she could bring her broadside to bear effectively.  During the forty minutes that followed, the “Victory” was an unresisting target to her enemies, and her speed, slow enough at the first, decreased continually as the hail of shot riddled the sails, or stripped them from the yards.  Every studding-sail boom was shot away close to the yard arms, and this light canvas, invaluable in so faint a wind, fell helplessly into the water.  During these trying moments, Mr. Scott, the admiral’s public secretary, was struck by a round shot while talking with Captain Hardy, and instantly killed.  Those standing by sought to remove the body without drawing Nelson’s attention to the loss of one so closely associated with him; but the admiral had noticed the fall.  “Is that poor Scott,” he said, “who is gone?” The clerk who took the dead man’s place was killed a few moments later by the wind of a ball, though his person was untouched.